A Sheffield-based social enterprise, café and restaurant, which offers employment opportunities to some of the city’s most vulnerable and marginalised adults, has received a near £40,000 funding grant.
Blend Kitchen, which is due to open a new state-of-the-art dining space and training facility in the spring, was selected as one of 120 social entrepreneurs in England to receive support from the Inclusive Recovery Fund.
The fund is a partnership between UnLtd, the foundation for social entrepreneurs, and Comic Relief , enabling social enterprises to ‘deliver important services’ while ‘adapting to the challenges presented by the coronavirus crisis’. It was supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport as part of the Government’s £750 million support package for charities.
The £38,000 received by Blend Kitchen will enable the organisation’s core staff to be brought off the UK Government’s furlough scheme and paid in full, while also providing a resource to start training staff in anticipation of the outlet’s opening in February.
It will allow Blend Kitchen to support local communities throughout the current lockdown, including expanding its important community activities such as providing free meals to disadvantaged children along with a number of online life coaching and hospitality training programmes for people who are looking for work.
The funding will also provide sufficient staff capacity to complete the fit-out at the new Blend Kitchen site.
Chris Hanson, founder of Blend Kitchen, said: “This funding is a huge boost and will mean that we can continue to support our team, as well as expand our capacity to support others.
“With only one in 10 organisations who applied being successful, we feel very fortunate to be able to continue carrying out vital work to support some of the most marginalised members of society during such a difficult time.
“It’s a real morale boost for us all and highlights the value of the work that we do. However, though we’re well underway in utilising this crucial funding to its optimum, it doesn’t bring an end to our need for even more support during such difficult circumstances.
“We’ve managed to raise upwards of £300,000 through various means in the last 12 months, to enable the brilliance of Blend Kitchen to live on, but we will still need additional public funding to get us over the line.
“While we have been able to install the kitchen, air conditioning, toilets, tables and chairs, we still need more than £20,000 to purchase stock, crockery, kitchenware and other finishing touches which we need to complete our journey.
“Full details for how you can become part of the Blend Kitchen family to be confirmed shortly!”
Ahmed Al-aagam, Social Enterprise Support Manager at UnLtd, said: “I have had the pleasure of supporting Blend Kitchen from the get-go and it has been a privilege to work with them. We supported the initial development phase at their old site, and I am pleased we are now supporting them undergo this huge transformation at their new site.
“Social entrepreneurs need to be supported to deliver their important services, especially through the challenges presented by the coronavirus crisis. With the Inclusive Recovery Fund we hope to unleash the potential of social businesses, like Blend Kitchen, to make a crucial difference to their communities.”
